(Deborah James and Medea Benjamin).- While Iranian President Ahmedinejad stole the headlines during the United Nations meeting last week in New York, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales - a humble coca farmer, former llama herder and union organizer - stole the hearts of the American people. At public events and media appearances, Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous president reached out to the American people to dialogue directly on issues of democracy, environmental sustainability, and social and economic justice.   more »

(Reuters).- French media and telecoms group Vivendi said on Tuesday it had been awarded $105 million in compensation at the end of a decade-long dispute with Argentinian authorities about a former water concession.   more »

At a press conference on 8 May 2007, Pablo Solón, Bolivia’s leading trade and integration negotiator gave further background on the decision by Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela to withdraw from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the plans now to revise Bolivia's 24 Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITS). The text is a summary of the press conference.   more »

An overview of the state of integration in the Mercosur community which has been wracked by personal and political conflicts but also an upsurge of support from countries like Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina for building a community based on principles of solidarity and mutual support.   more »

For the last twenty years, CAN has been governed by one vision of integration based on integrating into the globalised economy. Now there are two visions, with countries like Ecuador and Bolivia saying that integration must be based on integrating peoples and addressing social needs and asymmetries between regions   more »

President Evo Morales of Bolivia sends a letter to the EU Heads of State in advance of negotiations for an EU-Community of Andean Nations Association Agreement asking for the EU to respect the processes of change in Bolivia, to offer an agreement that recognises asymetries between EU and Andean economies and saying that Bolivia won't accept an agreement that compromises the role of the State in advancing the economy or that damages the environment.   more »

We salute this important historic moment which opens with the Summit of Cochabamba, which holds the challenge of deepening a process of regional integration which expresses the peoples’ interests. The peoples of America have suffered from the application of an economic model which is based on market fundamentalism, privatisation and free trade, which has led to a growth in inequality, the deterioration of labour conditions, unemployment, the spread of informal-sector work, degradation of the environment, deepening discrimination against women, poverty, marginalisation of indigenous and rural communities and the loss of State capacity to promote development and economic policies.   more »

The Bush administration will ask Congress to extend trade benefits to Andean nations that expire at the end of this year, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said Tuesday, according to Reuters. Burns said the continuation of trade benefits would include Ecuador and Bolivia even though those two countries have not negotiated free trade agreements with the US.   more »

Enclosed is a letter that can be used to lobby key trade ministers and commissioners in the EU to support Bolivia's negotiating position for the CAN-EU Association Agreement. Adjunto una carta que puede servir para hacer cabildeo a los ministros y funcionarios en la UE para apoyar los bases de negociación de Bolivia en el Acuerdo de Asociación entre la CAN y UE.   more »

Presidents of the Community of Andean Nations committed to strengthening the community and initiating talks with the EU in July for an Association Agreement. Bolivia outlined its baseline negotiating positions and persuaded the other Governments to support a letter calling on the US to extend trade preferences under ATPDEA (due to run out in December 2006)   more »

Bolivia turns protests into proposals and constructs a trade policy based on principles of solidarity, complementarity and co-existence with the environment. The Government’s initiative provides a forward-looking opportunity for the global justice movement and deserves our full support.   more »

Pablo Solón, participant in the Bolivian Movement for Sovereignty and Integration of Solidarity of the Peoples, identifies at least four distinctive qualities of Peoples Trade Agreements that are excluded from the entirely commercially-minded Free Trade Agreements promoted by the United States and European Union.   more »

The Bush administration announced Tuesday it has broken off negotiations on a free trade agreement with Ecuador after that government's decision to annul an operating contract with Occidental Petroleum Corp.   more »

On April 28 and 29, Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela met in Havana to draw up a trade agreement based not on free trade but principles of solidarity, cooperation and aid. Attached is the communique and the agreement.   more »

The Community of Andean Nations is due to start negotiating an "association agreement" in May with the European Union. Members of the Bolivian Movement for Sovereignty and Integration of the Peoples have examined preparatory documents and warned that it is another FTA in disguise and must be negotiated on different principles.   more »

Bolivian Government proposal and principles for a new kind of trade integration based on solidarity, complementarity, reciprocity and community values.   more »

A Chilean chemical firm has initiated arbitration proceedings at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), claiming that its Bolivian mining company was expropriated, but Bolivian Government representatives said the company had systematically withheld information related to taxes.   more »

Ecuador's president, Alfredo Palacio has urged Ecuadoreans to stand together after protests over the Andean free trade agreement brought the country to a halt. Reports say the blockades have already led to a shortage of provisions and a rise in prices in the capital, Quito, and other central provinces.   more »

The US and Colombia have concluded a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). The accord, signed after a final two-week round of negotiations in Washington, will lower tariffs and other barriers to trade in goods and services; it also contains provisions on intellectual property rights, the rights of foreign investors, and environmental protection.   more »

Colombia looks likely to make concessions on agricultural imports (in particular chicken, corn, beef) as pressure for liberalisation is applied by US multinationals for "comprehensive liberalisation."   more »

The US multinational giant, Bechtel, has backed down after a major international campaign and dropped a legal suit for $50 million against Bolivia. Instead the Bolivian Government will pay only 2 Bolivianos (14 pence) to end the case. Bechtel was thrown out of Bolivia in what was known as the "water war" in 2000 as a result of popular revolt caused by major rises in water rates and the expropriation of communal water systems.   more »

The Commission for Admission to the Constitutional Tribunal has accepted that the legal demand for unconstitutionality made by social movements against six bilateral investment treaties has a legal basis to proceed. Campaigners argue that the BITS which allow foreign jurisdiction over disputes between States and foreign investors contradicts a central principle of the Constitution.   more »

The World Bank hosted International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has ruled that it is perfectly acceptable for multinationals to change the country of their legal headquarters in order to protect their investments. The controversial ruling was made on 21 October in a judgement to establish whether ICSID had jurisdiction to rule on a case between Bolivia and private water utility Aguas del Tunari, owned largely by US multinational Bechtel.   more »

(International Trade Daily) Argentina's Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said insufficient progress on farm trade liberalization at the latest round of World Trade Organization talks held in Hong Kong bode badly for the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas.   more »

Campaigners and activists in the US are calling on US citizens to write to the Congress calling for a new trade model, saying that the Andean Free Trade Agreement will make people in the Andes poorer and lead to loss of jobs in the US.   more »

Bolivia faces ten litigations by multinational companies in the coming year, saying that the Bolivia Government’s actions on water and gas undermine their investors’ rights protected by Bilateral Investment Treaties. Within Bolivia, lawyers have joined forces with Congressman Wilson Magne to challenge the treaties saying they are unconstitutional. Activists have warned that any attempt to sue Bolivia will lead to massive international campaigns against the multinational companies involved.   more »

Two recent letters to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) have expressed concerns with respect to the continuing trade negotiations of the Andean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA). The letters bring to attention concerns for agriculture, intellectual property and labor.   more »

A recent paper ‘A Contentious U.S. – Andean Free Trade Agreement: Do it Right or Not at All’ by Helen Cardena and Katherine Vyborny, (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), expresses concerns for the ongoing negotiations of the Andean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA). Through interviews with individuals from the US, Ecuador, Peru and Columbia (representatives from diverse sectors; negotiation teams, policymakers, NGO’s, associations of industry, labor and farmers), the paper identifies key recommendations for the continuing negotiations and calls for a slower and more thorough negotiation process with specialist treatment of the Andean countries.   more »

(Raúl Zibechi, upsidedownworld.org) The US failed to get consensus to move forward on its pet project of the "Free Trade Agreement of the Americas" at the Summit of the Americas in early November, due to opposition from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela. However it is not likely to stop the free trade jugernaut for long, as these nations remain deeply divided on trade issues themselves which have prevented the articulation of alternatives or the strengthening of alliances such as Mercosur.   more »

A Mini-Ministerial Green Room meeting at the WTO headquarters highlights the core fractures and key differences in the trade negotiations and results in both the lowering of expectations for the forthcoming Hong Kong Ministerial in December and the setting back of the proposed timetable.   more »

Two years ago, in the lead up to the WTO negotiations in Cancún 2003, the World Bank and various institutions predicted that developing countries would benefit in the region of $500 billion through the liberalization of trade. Now, in the lead up to the WTO negotiations in Hong Kong the predictions are more modest, with estimated benefits to developing countries no higher than $100 billion.   more »

(Wall Street Post) Summit of the Americas ends with major divisions on free trade, and strong opposition to advancing ALCA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) from Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela. It has cast a shadow on possibilities of advancing the "free trade" agenda at WTO meetings in December.   more »

The theme of investment is currently causing divisions amongst Andean countries in negotiations for the Andean Free Trade Agreement (TLC in Spanish) with Ecuador raising concerns about a new investment chapter after several bad experiences under an existing Bilateral Investment Treaty with the US.   more »

Hundreds of workers marched on Saturday apparently calling on the Bolivian government to sign a free trade treaty with the US. However the real focus was the understandable desire to secure their jobs. The Bolivian Movement against TLC (AFTA) and COB supported the fight for jobs. However they warned of the dangers of calling for a treaty that will only benefit a handful of exporters responsible for less than 10% of national sales, yet holds many disadvantages and dangers for much of Bolivian society.   more »

Peruvian trade officials speaking in US said they were still hopeful that Andean Free Trade Agreement would be signed off this November despite ongoing conflict on patents and agriculture.   more »

It was due to be signed off in November with the final round in Colombia, but continuing debates over intellectual property and rising popular opposition have delayed the signing of the Free Trade Treaty (TLC in Spanish) between the Andean states of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia and the US.   more »